Secondary right navigation

Do more teams mean more money?

This story (see the whole thing below) provides some interesting details on the financial ramifications to the Pac-10 of failing to snag the Texas market. There are also a few tidbits on how the Big Ten Network works. According to the report, it generates 88 cents per month in the Big Ten’s market and 5 cents per month out of market.

According to the report, “But it won’t be nearly as lucrative without Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State in the conference. A 16-team conference with those schools and Colorado would have expanded the Pac-10’s footprint into seven states that have about 31 million television homes and 10 of the top 30 TV markets, according to the 2009-10 figures from Nielsen Co.

“By only adding Colorado and Utah, the conference will see its penetration fall from 26.7 percent of the country to just 19 percent — a loss of 9.1 million of TV homes.

“‘Adding the state of Texas would have added a lot of TV homes,’ said Neal Pilson, president of the Pilson Communications media consulting firm and a former president of CBS Sports. “But they still have close to 20 percent of the country. A conference channel is still going to be researched and examined. They could probably make it work in those markets.”

“The difference in homes becomes stark when it comes to a conference network, where the biggest source of revenue is from subscribers of cable and satellite providers.

“Analyst Derek Baine of the research firm SNL Kagan said the Big Ten gets 88 cents per subscriber each month in market, compared to 5 cents out of market. The loss of a potential 9.1 million TV homes a month starts to add up quickly.” (read the AP story below)